The company will not be commenting on its fourth quarter 2025 fiscal health report until Thursday morning. That said, investors in The E.W. Scripps Co. — a takeover target in recent months of Sinclair — may be pleased with the expense discipline and reduced restructuring costs seen in the final three months of last year.
This helped Scripps achieve Q4 ’25 revenue that sailed past the consensus estimate.
Unfortunately, that couldn’t stop the company from registering a net loss. Local media dollars were down significantly.
For the quarter ending December 31, 2025, operating revenues moved to $560.26 million from $728.38 million on difficult comps due to robust political advertising in 2024.
The great news? The 5 analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance offered a range of $545 million-$559.2 million, easily beating their consensus estimate of $550.82 million.
A dip in operating expenses to $517.97 million, from $536.76 million, was key to the Q4 prowess, with respect to revenue.
Yet Scripps finished Q4 with a net loss attributable to shareholders of $44.91 million (-$0.51 per share), shifting from net income of $80.32 million ($0.92).
Adjusted EBITDA fell to $86.37 million, from $229.35 million.
On a segment-by-segment basis, Local Media revenue fell by 29.6%, to $359.95 million from $511 million, as profit shrunk to $50.05 million from $198.85 million.
Core advertising grew by 12.2% to $165.37 million, from $147.45 million, as distribution dollars (including retransmission consent revenue) slipped to $182.92 million from $185.91 million.
At Scripps Networks, which is comprised of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, digital multicast networks and other Connected TV offerings, revenue declined to $199.5 million from $216.14 million. However, segment profit increased to $63.5 million, from $60.7 million.
As of the end of 2025, Scripps’ long-term debt included $1.7 billion of senior notes outstanding, $619 million of term loans outstanding, and $361 million under the accounts receivable securitization facility; total debt was $2.6 billion. And, under the terms of Berkshire Hathaway’s preferred equity investment in Scripps, the company is prohibited from paying dividends on or repurchasing common shares until all preferred shares are redeemed.
